“It’s kind of fun to have this open-ended series… It’s really just the psychological triggers that you do with yourself. No one is actually imposing restrictions or boundaries on you, but at times, you feel like you have a place, a repository to fit these other ideas, that doesn’t lose your format.” - Alex Hall, on Lilacs & Champagne’s Midnight Features series

Oftentimes, a complete change in sound and a long delay between full-length albums marks the death knell of a band, or at least a rebirth. After a long brainstorming session — during which the band lost a guitarist, put out an EP without that guitarist, and gained another in time for the latest record — Metavari has returned, and the Metavari you hear on Moonless is not the Metavari you heard six years ago, during the release of Be One of Us and Hear No Noise. This time around, the quartet from Fort Wayne, Indiana, seems to have found its niche in the instrumental world, eschewing the grand sonic explosions commonly associated with post-rock in favor of analog and electronic sounds and samples.

Though the haunting voice of Portland songstress Sara Jackson-Holman already lends itself well to a song bearing the title “Haunt Me”, the remix by hometown hero Natasha Kmeto transforms all of the bright notes of the piano-heavy original into atmospheric grey skies. Pair that with a number of delightful frills-and-lace wardrobe pieces — some fashioned by the singer herself — and what you find in the music video, directed by Ife Adeniji of Artistic Outlet Media, speaks to a wisdom and maturity beyond Jackson-Holman’s young years.

The idea that the multiverse is more akin to an art project than a science experiment (or an art experiment, if you’re so inclined) is one of those Occult themes that typically gets dismissed by both overly scientific and religious types alike, even though it quite inarguably resonates now more than ever. One of the stranger aspects of human psychology that we essentially avoid touching in typical academic or spiritual discourse involves the fact that your average person now consumes roughly a hundred thousand times more art in a given year than they did even a mere century ago. We used to rely on mediums like galleries, plays, symphonies, and libraries to dispense our art, most of which weren’t super…

In contrast to modern patterns in music consumption comes our annual Album Covers of the Year feature, where, instead of forgetting album artwork even exists, we hyperextend ourselves to assert that it is an artform that is vitally connected to the spirit of the music. This feature, which is divided at times into thematic elements and at times into artistic medium, incorporates interviews with not only musicians, but also artists involved throughout the artistic process. We pride this list in being diverse and multi-faceted, as well as philosophically exploratory. See all of our entries from previous years or get started by choosing a category below. Happy travels through the artistic universe we’ve crafted for you.

“If you’re basing your career on likes and plays and how many hits a particular video has, it’s really impersonal. But when it’s that grassroots thing, you get so much more mileage out of looking someone in the eye and having them tell you, ‘Wow, this song did this for me’, or. ‘This album puts me in this mindset that I can’t get anywhere else.’ That kind of stuff gives us the chills and gives us the juju for the next year.” - Robert Brinkerhoff, Guitarist & Vocalist of Kiev

“Where we’re at right now, it doesn’t make sense for us to join a preexisting community or culture that has a set of rules or traditions. That can’t happen for us, but we want that — everyone wants that — and with this project, we’re creating our own sacred spaces and traditions. Pathways in. And up.” - Brenna Murphy, MSHR

“The urge to reinvent myself is strong, and the big question after London Zoo was, ‘Do I want to break away totally from my past, and the albatross of the ‘dubstep’ label…?’ The more I thought about it, the more I realised I had the most respect for artists who had found their individual voice, and then managed to extend their sound thereafter as a craft to be bettered and mastered. I decided to fight my initial kneejerk reaction to destroy the blueprint of London Zoo and the media’s misconception of me and that album, and instead, made the decision to try and use London Zoo as a foundation to build outwards from, whilst still acknowledging [its] relationship to [dubstep].” - Kevin Martin, The Bug

>When it’s summer, I want to hear blisteringly hot dance numbers or mellow jams from the torrid regions of the world. I’ve based this mix on artists from Latin America and the Caribbean; some of it’s hot, some of it’s mellow, and all of it is good for letting your mind wander to somewhere a bit more exotic. Be warned: finding sources for some of these musicians in English can be a challenge. But that makes the hunt all the more enjoyable. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere ends on September 22nd, so warm yourself up with these jams one last time.

Within a few weeks of one another, the Pacific Northwest finds itself graced annually with two significant events adhering to very different festival models: MusicFestNW and Bumbershoot Festival. Running since 1995 in Portland and 1971 in Seattle, respectively, both festivals have been known for catering to a wide and varied acts across a host of stages and venue locations. In late 2013, however, MusicFestNW announced that it would be approaching 2014′s festival a bit differently, foregoing its previous SXSW-esque multi-venue model in favor of a two-stage waterfront event. Bumbershoot, by contrast, has maintained its long-running model of utilizing the Seattle Center’s many venues to showcase interdisciplinary art. Both festivals have their huge differences in terms of history, infrastructure, funding models, and artistic goals — but considering the cornerstones that both festivals have been for their local communities and beyond, it seems only prudent to compare them a bit.